


Better Than Expected

by Brishen



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bad Dreams, Bottom!Jean, Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, Oops, Shower Sex, Smut, for now ouo, marco is alive, sorry - Freeform, they probs dont have showers???, top!Marco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 19:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1196700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brishen/pseuds/Brishen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean has a nightmare about Marco dying. Marco comforts him and Jean wants to show his appreciation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Than Expected

_Feet pounding against the ground, breathing labored and heavy – running was the only option. Jean was not in control of his legs; they just kept going, even as his breath became ragged and coming out in gasping pants._

_The sky above was dark green-grey and the grass was sickly yellow, the dirt dry and dusty. The whizzing of 3D Maneuvering Devices could be heard from all around, shouts of agony and pain mingled in the cacophony of sound._

_His legs were burning and his head was spinning from lack of oxygen but he couldn’t stop, never stop, he would not stop running, but nothing seemed to pass by him, just the same stretch of road miles and miles ahead._

_From behind him, Jean heard someone shout his name, a familiar voice laced with fear. He stopped almost too quickly and turned around, suddenly crouched beside a tan figure in the tall grass. He could see a large pool of something red in his peripheral vision, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at it._

_He held Marco in his arms, supporting the torso in his lap, tears streaming down his face and into his hair, slowly turning the inky black to starlight grey. Marco’s hand slowly slipped from his face, and his sepia eyes closed for the last time, his mouth slightly parted and his tongue tinged with crimson…_

Jean woke up with a cry of, “No!”

His chest was heaving and his face was wet with tears, his heart beating so quickly he thought it must burst from its cage. For a moment he sat in silence, listening to the pounding of the muscle in his chest and how loud his breathing was in his own ears. Then the sobbing came, and he buried his face in his hands, bringing his knees up to his chest. A warm hand found its way to Jean's shoulder, arms bringing him into an embrace as he continued to wash the nightmare away.

“You died. You bled out in my arms. I couldn’t… I couldn’t stop it,” he sobbed, Jean's face pressed into the crook of his neck, his tears dampening Marco’s skin, but Marco couldn’t bring himself to mind. Marco made soft noises in Jean's ear - ‘shh’, ‘it’s okay’, and ‘hush now.’

When Jean's breathing had calmed and his crying had stopped, he wiped his face with his hands and gave a shaky sigh, swallowing thickly as he looked at Marco. His eyes were warm, as always, like sunlight filtering through coffee. They made Jean feel relaxed and safe.

“Promise me you won’t ever make me do that,” he said. His eyes were red with tears and his face was flushed in the most endearing way that Marco couldn’t help pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Promise me you won’t die, not like that. Make sure you die old and in a warm bed with… someone beside you,” he almost said ‘me’, but perhaps that would’ve been too forward.

Marco looked at him calmly, cupping his hand behind Jean’s neck and smoothing down his hair in the back where it stuck up.

“I promise - I will try my absolute hardest not to die until you tell me I can,” Marco said, his tone completely serious and Jean thought he might be joking, but Marco did not crack a smile and his eyes never wavered from his own.

Jean let out another sigh and rubbed his hands over his face, his eyes tired from crying, and leaned into Marco’s body, his arms clasped around Jean’s shoulders.

“It was just a dream, Jean. It’s alright, I’m still here,” Marco murmured, the rumbling timbre of his voice resonating in his chest, the sound warmly settling in Jean’s stomach. He layed down again and brought Marco with him, resting his head over the ever-present tempo of Marco’s heart.

“I know, I know… It was just - it was just so _real,”_ he said quietly, the image of Marco dying in his arms flashing through his mind and he wrapped his arms around Marco’s middle-section more tightly.

Marco rubbed soothing circles into his back with his hand, running his fingers through Jean’s hair with the other. He pressed a light kiss to Jean's temple and Jean turned his head to kiss Marco properly on the mouth, whose mind was already slipping back into the coma-like state of sleep. Jean positioned his head over Marco’s chest again and closed his eyes.

Jean often had dreams like this; less often than when he had first joined the Survey Corps, when his dreams were about watching his siblings die in some horrific way. But the nightmares still plagued him at least twice a week. Most of them were about Marco - or himself - dying. Some of them weren’t as violent, but still terrifying and deeply disturbing, while others were positively immobilizing and Jean would wake up in a cold sweat, his body shivering and tense and unable to cry out to Marco for several minutes.

Marco did the best he could in comforting Jean; he wasn’t used to this kind of thing. He wasn’t quite sure what _they_ were yet, but Jean seemed to think they were in a relationship, and he was perfectly content to agree. But what being in a relationship consisted of, Marco had no clue. Obviously he had seen other people in relationships, like his parents and his childhood friends, but had no personal experience in the matter.

So, he did what felt natural, and evidently it worked. Some nights it took longer for Jean to calm down than others, but he would gradually stop shaking when he hummed a melody from his childhood to him, and he would slowly calm down.

Marco wanted to find out what was causing these nightmares and stop them from happening anymore, but as Jean explained to him, it was because he cared about him that these nightmares kept happening. For a while after that, Marco tried to keep his distance, as if that would help him in not caring so much, but it only made the nightmares worse, so he took every chance he got to keep Jean in his arms while he recovered.

And Jean was not ungrateful, oh no, not in the least. Like this particular morning (or sometime when they woke up), for instance, he would show how grateful he was for his guardian.

Jean slowly rose from the depths of his slumber, his pulse picking up and his breath quickening to its normal rate. He kept his eyes closed until his brain was fully functioning and he opened them, blinking almost serenely. He heaved a deep breath through his nose and let it out in a huff, turning to his side.

Marco was still asleep, his chest rising and falling unhurriedly and eyes twitching under the skin of his eyelid. Jean hoped his dream wasn’t as bad as his had been. He brushed the hair off Marco’s forehead, so cautiously one might think he had barely touched him at all, but the ink-black strands moved to the side and he only shifted slightly in his sleep.

After another moment of staring and realizing he had been counting Marco’s freckles again, Jean got up and stretched, cracking his knuckles, wrists, back and finally his neck, giving a hum of contentment as endorphins rushed through his system. He walked sluggishly towards the showers, grabbing a fresh towel as he rubbed his eyes and proceeded to turn on the water to the correct pressure and temperature.

He rid himself of his clothes and stepped under the spray of water, letting it wash down his back before tipping his head into the stream and wetting his hair. He lathered soap into his hair, lightly massaging his scalp with the tips of his fingers and sometimes his nails.

After he had rinsed out the soap, he kept his head under the water with his eyes closed. That’s when he heard the squeak of the bath-house door and felt the draft as the colder air was sucked into the warm humidness of the sauna-like room.

Soft, dry hands found their way to Jean’s hips while a daring tongue made a trail down his neck, licking the water off his skin. He smiled slightly, his eyes opening to look down at the creature currently sucking a bruise on his clavicle.

“Good morning,” he said with an amused tone.

“Morning,” Marco mumbled, hands sliding to encircle Jean’s waist in his arms.

Without even thinking about it they tilted their heads and met each other’s lips for a kiss, languorous and slow as neither one of them was fully awake yet. Before Jean pulled away, Marco gave him a soft bite on the lower lip, causing Jean to involuntary whimper.

Marco grinned against his lips, watching the color flood to Jean’s cheeks out of embarrassment, and went in for another kiss, gently prying open his mouth. It was not usual for Marco to be this forward in his sensuality, but Jean wasn’t complaining. He returned the favor by opening Marco’s mouth wider and gently sucking on the tongue that intruded, causing a moan to escape from the other.

While their mouths were occupied, hands were moving and touching also. Marco was currently running his fingers over the sensitive flesh of Jean’s lower back, trailing them around to his front, causing the muscles of his stomach to twitch in response. Jean, in retaliation, was leaving marks on Marco’s back with his nails, scratching them down and tracing them up again ever-so lightly.

“God, you’re awful,” Marco growled, pulling away to give Jean a sharp bite on the under-side of his jaw, at which Jean gave a start and another small whimper.

“You’re the one who came in here bothering me while I was trying to shower,” Jean returned, tugging on Marco’s earlobe with his teeth.

With a huff, Marco moved down on his neck and bit into the flesh, and suddenly Jean’s balance was thrown off as he was lifted and pressed against the shower wall. On instinct, he wrapped his legs around Marco’s hips and leaned his weight into the wall. Jean’s breathing was suddenly shallow and short, his lips kiss-swollen and his cheeks thoroughly reddened.  Marco smirked, feeling a small sense of pride, knowing he was the one to get Jean into such a desperate-looking state.

He hungrily claimed his mouth again, sliding his tongue against his lip and sucking on it lightly. Jean only had a moment to collect his thoughts before there was hot pressure inside him, causing him to gasp and throw his head back against the shower wall. Marco continued to work his fingers inside of Jean, his fingers slippery with soap, gently scissoring the other boy open, listening to the low moans Jean made in his throat as he added another finger. When Jean was practically writhing against him and begging Marco to “please, please fuck me, I need you so badly Marco, god I need it,” Marco pushed inside with little difficulty and black spots danced before his eyes at the tight heat.

Marco let out a wanton groan, his hips bucking forward sharply as his hands and fingers flexed against the hard lines of Jean’s hips, causing him to hiss slightly when Marco dug his nails into the flesh. Jean moved against Marco’s thrusts, twisting this way and that ever so slightly and pushing down when Marco went up. For a while, there was only the sound of rushing water and gasping pants, water hitting the stone floor and soft moans from both boys. They moved so well together Marco would’ve thought they had the same body. Jean suddenly let out a high-pitched groan. Marco imitated the thrust he had just placed inside him, looking up at the boy with curiosity, and Jean made the same delicious noise, looking down at Marco with water dripping from his eyelashes and his ichor eyes eclipsed by his pupils; Marco thought he was beautiful.

Only a few more well-placed thrusts Jean came with a half-scream, his skin flushed all the way up to his ears and down his chest. With another forward snap of his hips Marco came as well, sighing into the crook of Jean’s shoulder, and Jean buried his fingers in Marco’s wet hair. Marco disentangled himself from Jean a bit reluctantly and they regarded each other - both of them standing under the spray of water - Jean looking distinctly smug and Marco a bit abashed at his blatant burst of lust.

 “Well… that was better than I expected,” he said, causing Jean to chuckle and slowly fall into a fit of laughter, a sound Marco would never get tired of, even if Jean was laughing at his expense.

“I’m sorry, it’s just… It was so sudden,” he gasped, his eyes bright with mirth. “I never thought you could be that controlling.”

“Guess I’ll just have to keep surprising you,” he returned, receiving him a warm kiss and a dazzling smile, and he watched as Jean continued to shower, as if the past 20 minutes hadn’t happened, except that Jean’s face looked younger and laughter continued to bubble out of his mouth from time to time. Marco only smiled fondly and proceeded to shower with him, appreciating the chance to look at Jean every time he closed his eyes to rinse out his hair and earning a smack on the arm in return, at which Marco only grinned cheekily.


End file.
